Second bail refusal for mafia boss Rancadore

Domenico Rancadore, 20 yeas ago

Domenico Rancadore has been refused bail for a second time at Westminster Magistrates’ Extradition court yesterday in the morning.

Running away from the Italian authorities for 19 years, Rancadore is charged for being one of the heads of the powerful Sicilian Mafia ‘Cosa Nostra’.

Yesterday’s review, aimed at a second bail out application, ended with District Justice Quentin Purdy saying to him: "It seems to me clear that if you are released on bail there is a risk you will disappear. I can see no grounds to grant you bail and be satisfied that you will return."

He also said that he had to serve 7 years in jail. Rancadore actively lived under a false identity with no other explanation than avoidance of police: therefore there are no conditions for bail grant.

Indeed, all of Rancadore’s documents were Italian, such as passport and driving license. A prosecutor said that Rancadore had been reluctant to use his real name for some matters because he had no trust in the Italian authorities.

For the record, Rancadore had been already acquitted in Italy once , but arrested again on the very next day for the same charges of being involved in the Sicilian mafia.

The prosecutor tried to make a point of law by saying that the European warrant was inconsistent with the Italian one.

A prosecutor said Rancadore did not want to go back to Italy, after he allegedly said, “They will kill me”.

He had been acquitted of Mafia-related crimes after the 'Maxi Trial' in Italy, on December 16, 1987, and came to the UK in 1993. He was convicted in his absence of Mafia links in Italy after he went on the run, and he came to the UK knowing all this, said a prosecutor.

He is detained since his arrest by Scotland Yard officers two weeks ago in his home in Manor Waye, Uxbridge, West London.

Rancadore will appear before this court again on September 20.

This article was written as an assignment for the London School of Journalism.